Overeating is so Easy to do During the Holiday

If you find yourself overeating during the holidays, I’ve put together these 5 tips to help you out!

It’s a slightly odd list with solutions that seem a bit too simple, but don’t let this fool you – this works!

5 Ways I Avoid Overeating During the Holidays:

1) Drink plenty of water.

The standard recommendation is to drink half of your body weight in ounces of water. This means that a person who weights 150 pounds should drink 75 ounces of water per day. This is is about two and a half quarts of water. Flavor your water with lemon or lime, or therapeutic grade essential oils if it’s challenging to drink enough water at first. And don’t worry if you find yourself peeing a lot. You’re body is cleaning itself out. If this is a problem due to your work, drink a couple of large glasses of water at once (not near a meal as this will dilute stomach acids) and your trips to the bathroom should be more predictable. Another way to look at is, that these frequent trips to the bathroom get you up and moving around from your desk! Drinking plenty of water before you go to an event fills the stomach and helps you feel more full. Also, sometimes, especially when people are not accustomed to drinking enough water, hunger is mistaken for thirst.

2) Eat a Healthy Meal Before the Event.

Even if you’re looking forward to enjoying your favorite dish that grandma makes or your brother’s BBQ chicken wings, eat at least a small, healthy meal before the event. You will still get to enjoy all the tasty food at the event, and you still may end up stuffing yourself full, but you know that you at least got a base of healthy food in your tummy beforehand.

3) Don’t Stand at the “Food Station”.

When we have an event at our house everyone seems to gather around the kitchen island where the food is assembled. There are plenty of comfortable places to sit, but people will happily stand at the counter and nibble on food all night. If you’re trying to avoid overeating I suggest you grab a plate, put the amount of food that you want to eat on it, grab the person you want to talk to and go to a comfortable place away from the food station to talk. Simple? Yes! Effective? Yes!

4) Throw it Away!

Yes, I know. I hate throwing away or wasting food too, but consider this; are the goodies that seem to be lingering from cookie exchanges, leftovers from gatherings: are these items really food? What I mean is, do they actually provide nutrition to the body? Most often they do not. If this “food” is made of white sugar, white flour, noodles or contains ingredients that you cannot pronounce, throw it away! I don’t mean pass on the cookies to your co-workers or your mechanic… I mean toss them in the garbage! Don’t put other people through the same challenges you’re trying to get over. You’re not helping them! Yes, throw it away!

5) Take Your Vitamins!

What!? Why did this one make the list? Sometimes we crave foods, even the ones that are not so good for us, because we are nutritionally deprived. I am one of these people! If you’re not sure if your vitamins are providing enough of what you need, contact a Functional Medicine practitioner. You can do some very helpful tests that assess which vitamins you may need more of according to your DNA and other tests which actually show how well your body is utilizing nutrients and which you may need more of. You’ll also get a good education on quality supplements too!